The Gallery

Sky-High in Sterling

ALTHOUGH IT “soft-opened” in February, Sky Ranch Golf Club staged an official grand opening celebration on June 16 with free barbecue, loads of branded swag and a golf-club demo. All were welcome at what once was the members-only Sterling Country Club. For most of the 20th Century, the private club in Colorado’s far northeastern corner was a hot ticket. One of Colorado’s five oldest courses, Sterling played home-and-home matches with the likes of Denver and Lakewood country clubs, and its annual Labor Day Invitational had a waiting list of golfers from Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas. The tournament survived the new millennium, yet little else about the club did. After a fire wiped out the clubhouse in 2001, Sterling Country Club built a new structure, but the club itself went the way of Colorado’s sugar-beet industry. By 2020, the now-public facility had gone through four owners and three names. Then, last September, The Sterling Golf Investment Group, a local group of nine investors and their families, purchased the place—which most recently went by Northeastern 18 (and by Pawnee Pines before that)—and rebranded it Sky Ranch Golf Course. This time felt different. With the new name came a fresh attitude and energetic approach. “We are looking forward to the challenge of returning this golf course to its past glory and making this facility a gathering spot for the entire community by providing a fun, family atmosphere,” one of the investors, Paul Schrade, told the Sterling Journal-Advocate at the time of the sale. The new owners immediately engaged Touchstone Golf to manage the facility. With a Colorado portfolio that includes turnaround successes at Applewood and Fox Acres, the Austin, Tex.-based concern set about remedying maintenance issues and getting the course as healthy as possible before winter. The company bought new agronomy equip-

NO WALK IN THE PARK: Sky Ranch’s tree-lined, old-school parkland layout normally plays around 6,500 yards, but abundant doglegs, sneaky water and small greens make this a fun test of shot-shaping and strategy.

ment and focused on turf and tree health. “The trees—mostly cottonwoods and elms—really make the golf course,” Touchstone Vice President of Operations Brian Melody says. “But with all the deadwood, it was really unsightly. We took down about 60 trees and started replanting as part of a tree-revitalization plan.” Winter brought a full renovation of the clubhouse interior. The old locker rooms became the 19th hole with dartboards and pool tables, and the existing restaurant got a full face-lift and softopened in February as the Sky Ranch Bar and Grill. A steakhouse, the Grill cuts its own filet, strip, rib eye and sirloin, and then grinds the trimmings into 7-ounce steakburgers—two of which join four ounces of gooey mac and cheese in the nine-inch-high signature Sky Ranch Burger. “We serve it held together with a steak knife,” General Manager Brian Benedict explains. The clubhouse banquet area seats 120 and an event tent bridges the building and an enormous patio that spills towards the practice green. “We are invested in becoming the premier golf course and event facility in Northeastern Colorado,” Benedict says. “By July 4th, we will have already hosted 30 events, including weddings and golf tournaments.” As evidence of the venue’s ascendancy, rising Austin-based country music star Braydon Zink, who grew up 12 miles from Sterling in the tiny town of Iliff (pop. 279), will perform at Sky Ranch July 31. Coinciding with the opening of the restaurant came the hiring of Superintendent John Waddle, a Sterling native who most recently worked at Blackstone Country Club in Aurora. “He has an eye for detail that the club hasn’t had before,” Melody says. “The course looks better than ever, as does the landscaping around the clubhouse.” The course itself, which dates to 1916, can stretch to 6,900 yards, but the undulant terrain— the course sits on the highest point in Sterling— and mature trees, tight doglegs, small greens and water on seven holes make this a challenge at any length. “What’s super sad is that they were doing only 7,000 rounds a year,” Melody says. By maintaining the course, upgrading the hospitality and rebranding the facility, he projects at least doubling that number this year. “Everybody that lives in Eastern Colorado is used to driving a lot,” he explains, noting that customers arrive not just from Sterling and throughout Logan County, but from Sidney, Neb. (40 minutes away) and North Platte, which is the same distance from Sky Ranch as Denver is. “For the right experience,” he says, “people will come.” skyranchgc.com

What the Hay?

IN A STATE that takes such pride in its skyscraping summits, it seems unthinkable that a conoid mound that rises 300 feet above a valley in Boulder County is called a “mountain.” And it’s more than a bit ironic that foodies around the world associate Colorado with this humble 5,545-foothigh hill because of the sublime artisanal cheeses made in its shadow. But long before Longmont’s Haystack Mountain Creamery produced its first chèvre, there was Haystack Mountain Golf Course in Niwot. Designed, built, owned and operated by the Ebel family on the 240 acres on which they also lived, Haystack opened in 1966 due southeast of its namesake—and in all likelihood will close this fall. The 2,153-yard, nine-hole, walking-only layout winds around Left Hand Creek, threads between mature cottonwoods and requires water carries on three holes. Its flat greens, familyfriendliness and affordable, relaxed ambiance— highlighted by a lighted driving range—have made it a scenic haunt for generations of Boulder County golfers, from beginners to seniors to any player needing an ego boost. “So many found golf on that quirky little layout,” said CAG editor-at-large Tom Ferrell, a former Boulderite. This fall, however, the screen door on the Haystack clubhouse’s old-school screened-in porch will likely clap shut for the last time. Beset with a 78 percent rise in property taxes and financial hardships stemming from the 2013 flood repairs and estate taxes following the 2016 death of matriarch Lois Ebel, trustee Julia Pirnack (one of Lois Edel’s six children) decided in April to sell the business and 112 acres for about $6 million to developer Michael Markel of Markel Homes. Compounding Haystack’s troubles were the course’s efforts, after Edel’s 2016 passing, to attract weddings and other events—the attendant increase in activity resulted in neighbor complaints and a lack of Casa Bonita-like community support for keeping the course open. Markel’s plans call for dividing his land into three parcels, one of which will be for him and his family. The other two parcels will remain vacant until sold, according to one report. Markel will decide Haystack Mountain Golf Course’s final day, which most predict will be September 30. On the positive side, the humble course lasted 55 years—infinitely longer than even the most artisanally aged dairy product. golfhaystack.com

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF HAYSTACK MOUNTAIN GOLF COURSE

THE MOUND AND THE FURY: Iconic Haystack Mountain looms behind the lush fairways of the nine-hole golf course that takes its name.

The Old College Try

BRAVISSIMA: Italian DU sophomore Anna Zanusso (left) made a splash at the NCAA nationals.

AFTER TYING for sixth place at the NCAA Stanford Regional, the University of Denver’s Anna Zanusso competed as an individual in the NCAA Championships at Grayhawk Golf Club and tied for ninth. It was the best finish by a Pioneer at the event since 2008 and made her the highest finisher ever for a Summit League golfer at the NCAA Championship. “To be the highest finisher of any non-power five school and beating six players in the top 10 of college golf shows you her talent and how she’s able to play and compete with the best,” said DU Women’s Golf Coach Lindsay Kuhle, who days later received her seventh Summit League Coach of the Year award. denverpioneers.com

Lindsay Kuhle & Anna Zanusso

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AJ is More Than OK

COLORADO STATE’S AJ Ott certainly made the most of the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA because of the pandemic. The Fort Collins native picked up his first two collegiate wins— The Prestige Individual Invitational and Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate—and was briefly ranked by Golfstat as the country’s top men’s Division I golfer. He joined four-time PGA Tour winner Martin Laird as the only Ram golfers to be named All-Mountain West three times. As an individual, he qualified for the NCAA National Championship, and in his final collegiate round—an even-par 70— he set a school record for rounds played with 150. Ott, who was low amateur in the 2019 CoBank Colorado Open and runner-up last year, plans to play in this month’s event, but hasn’t revealed if that (a) will remain next to his name.

LEFTY LEGACY: In tribute to his five years of dedication and lower scores, CSU renamed its most improved player honor the AJ Ott Award.

Called Home

COLORADO GOLF recently lost two of its biggest supporters, Larry Maurer and Dave Richardson. Maurer, who spent 26 years as an EZ-Go representative before founding Mile High Golf Carts in 2005, succumbed to cancer a month shy of his 80th birthday. The Boulder Country Club member won the 1975 State Amateur (then known as the Stroke Play) and captured a BCC club title. Richardson represented Spalding, Hogan and Yes! during his long career in the golf industry. He qualified for the 1982 U.S. Public Links Championship and rose to become vice president of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame, an organization to which he volunteered countless hours. Richardson, age 74, died June 12. Both men were honorary members of the Colorado PGA Section. “Someone once said, ‘We are not in the golf business; we are in the relationship business,’” Colorado PGA Section Executive Director Eddie Ainsworth said. “This explains why several years ago the Colorado Section bestowed Honorary Colorado PGA Memberships to both Larry and Dave. Yes, they were great representatives of the companies they worked for, but when it came to dealing with our Colorado PGA members, they were trusted partners and friends, and they will be greatly missed.”

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF LEGACY.COM

Larry Maurer

PHOTOGRAPH BY E.J. CARR

Dave Richardson

83 Years and Counting

ON AUGUST 26–28, the longest continually operated open golf championship in Colorado will take place in Grand Junction for the 83rd consecutive time, as scenic Tiara Rado Golf Course again hosts the Sinclair Rocky Mountain Open. The event counts among its champions 10 Colorado Golf Hall of Fame members, including four-time winners Jack Sommers and Pat Rea, and the last amateur overall champ, Paul Brown. Defending title-holder Mitch Carlson of Las Vegas, whose birdie on the 54th and final hole last year sealed his one-shot victory at 18-under par, will face a field that gets stronger each year as the payouts and sponsorships grow. This year’s purse will exceed $80,000, with $20,000 going to the winner. The event features professional, amateur and senior amateur fields. A pro-am takes place August 25. rmogolf.golfgenius.com

Tiara Rado Golf Course Mitch Carlson

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Unmatched Play

FOR THE FIRST TIME in their combined 227year history, the Men’s and Women’s Match Play Championships took place simultaneously at the same venues, with eight men and eight women advancing from three days of pod play—similar to the one used at March’s WGC Match Play—at CommonGround Golf Course to two days of elimination matches at Colorado Golf Club that culminated in a 36hole final.

Cole Nygren, a 27-year-old reinstated Cole Nygren amateur from Longmont, defeated 21-yearold University of Denver player Carson Griggs, 3 and 1 for the men’s title, while a pair of 20-yearold collegians—Leigha Devine of Rutgers University and Lauren Lehigh of the University of New Mexico—battled for 38 holes before Devine triumphed. In addition to the trophy, Nygren received a medal honoring 2011 CGA Match Play champ Michael Lee, who died in December from COVID-19. Every Men’s Match Play winner through 2030 will get one of the medals. coloradogolf.org

Leigha Devine

Junior Highs

Owen Cornmesser Lauren Kim

ON JUNE 17, Owen Cornmesser of Fort Collins and Lauren Kim of Surrey, British Columbia, won the boys and girls divisions of the Hale Irwin Junior at Walnut Creek Golf Preserve—the first of three AJGA events contested this year in Colorado. Cornmesser’s three-day score of 2-under-par 214 tied him with Ty Holbrook, of Granbury, Tex. and Cade McLaughlin of Princeton, N.J. The Fossil Ridge High School senior then won the five-hole playoff. Kim finished 9-under par, 12 shots clear of her nearest competitor. The AJGA will hold the Colorado Springs Junior by Centura Health July 26–29 at The Club at Flying Horse, and the following week will mark the inaugural AJGA Junior Open at The Bridges Golf and Country Club, presented by the City of Montrose, Aug. 2–5. ajga.org

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